Jarvis: Today’s lesson: If you don’t like a law, break it

Continuing the wave of one-day walkouts, teachers of the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board carry picket signs at Roberta Bondar Public School in protest to Ontario's Bill 115, Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2012 in Ottawa. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston)

A protest is something you do after work or on weekends. Suddenly abandoning classes, shutting schools and throwing tens of thousands of kids into chaos, that’s lawlessness.

It’s today’s civics lesson from our children’s role models. If you don’t like a law, break it. The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario cites “democracy,” “democratic values” and “democratic rights” in its announcement that teachers are walking out today.

That law they don’t like, Bill 115 — it was passed by a majority of democratically elected MPPs, many of them belonging to a party that teachers supported (when it was giving them big pay raises). And here’s something that works in tandem with democracy, rule of law. But all this is for mere mortals, I guess.

The elementary teachers have tried to argue — I’m not sure on what basis — that the walkout is legal. The high school teachers didn’t. In a bargaining bulletin on Monday, the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation told its members that because the government had imposed a contract, “you are not in a legal strike position and therefore strike action cannot continue;” “you must fulfil all imposed contractual obligations as well as obligations under the Education Act.”

Two days later, it flouted its own advisory, announcing it, too, will walk out, next Wednesday.

Teachers say they have no options. They’ve had plenty of options. Like every other public sector union, they could have negotiated with the government. The government said as early as 2010 that it expected the public sector — which has enjoyed generous increases for eight years under the Liberals — to help it address the $14-billion deficit. It met with teachers almost a year ago.

Everyone else — Catholic teachers, francophone teachers, school support staff represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees, college teachers, doctors and just this week the Ontario Public Service Employees Union — all reached agreements.

But public school teachers spent more time protesting than bargaining. They’ve still had plenty of options. They could walk out when they were in a legal strike position, and they did. They can refuse to do voluntary extra-curricular activities, and they are. They can challenge the law in court, and they are. They can throw the Liberals out in the next election, and they almost assuredly will. But all that too, apparently, is not enough.

Why not walk out? Most elementary teachers got away with not completing progress reports last fall, and high school teachers got away with cancelling parent-teacher interviews. Completing report cards and participating in parent-teacher interviews are mandatory under the Education Act.

Premier Dalton McGuinty emerged from his self-induced coma to announce that the government was applying to the Ontario Labour Relations Board for an order to block the walkout. At the time of writing this column, no decision had been made.

If teachers defy a labour board order, they can — and should — be fined up to $2,000. The unions can — and should — be fined up to $25,000. But it was too late to save classes for today.

“We’re just returning from a Christmas holiday,” Greater Essex County District School Board director Warren Kennedy was quoted as saying. “That’s usually a time when everybody has lots of energy, and they’re refreshed and they’re ready to do the things that we do in our classrooms both inside and out, and we’re going to lose that momentum.”

It’s like the life and spirit have been sucked out of this school year. No extracurricular activities for the first four months and still none in sight. A walkout in elementary schools the week before Christmas break (like every year the week before Christmas break, students still watched movies when they returned). A walkout the first week back from Christmas break. A PA Day scheduled for next week. Another PA Day scheduled for Feb. 8. Followed by Family Day Feb. 18. Three weeks later, it’s March Break. Less than two weeks after that, a four-day Easter holiday. We can’t even put in a solid month of classes in Ontario.

There should be a commitment by everyone that above all else, students are in class. A commitment that nothing is more important than children being in school. But there isn’t.

Liberal leadership candidate Gerard Kennedy urged teachers to wait until the party chooses a new leader and premier in three weeks. But either Kennedy is being disingenuous or he believes in unicorns. There is no silver bullet. The only things that will appease teachers are repealing Bill 115 and ripping up the new contract. This province not only can’t afford that, it’s not fair to all the other public sector employees who have reached agreements.

In the meantime, I guess it’s up to parents to try to explain to their kids the importance of education despite a school year in tatters.

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